Monday, June 14, 2010

Another List Maker in the Family.

Last week, on a morning when Matthew and I had (blessedly) little to do, Matthew kept telling me that he didn't know what to do and that he was bored. I was getting a little tired of these comments (especially because the last couple of weeks have been so busy and I was really enjoying a few hours at home with no agenda), so I told him that he should come up with his own list of favourite things that he could do when he didn't know what to do. Well, didn't he just disappear for about twenty minutes and then come back with his list! I'll need to help you interpret the list. Here's what his ideal scenario is:

Line 1: watch tv (though today he said that he was done forever with tv and wanted to throw it into the recycle bin because it was a waste of his time! Out of the mouths of babes...)

Line 2: play with my trains (which would be great, because he hasn't touched them in three years and we spent a small fortune on them!)

Line 3: Play with my ball

Line 4: Sing song (please, no, not again. He sings all day long. I. can't. take. yet. another. song.)

Line 5: Drink pop (fat chance! But I guess it's his dream list, so who am I to veto that one!?)

Line 6: Drink ginger ale (which, in his mind, is not pop!)

Line 7: Play with my lego

Lines 8 -10: Play with my teddies outside and put them down the slide (he likes to have them slide into a little wading pool at the bottom!)

I loved this list and was delighted with the effort he made to put it together. I've confiscated it, dated it, and put it in his little bin of keepsakes!

Oh, and here's an illustrated story that Matthew wrote just yesterday, which now hangs on an kitchen wall. It was written to his imaginary friend, Bambi, who apparently also has imaginary friends (who will die when they get old enough!). There's lots of poop-and-butt talk in this story, which Matthew justified by saying that he might like to read it to his teddies while sitting on the toilet. Sigh. Unfortunately, his writing leaves no spaces between words and takes a while to sort out because of the phonetic spelling of the words (it's especially hard to decipher at the beginning). For example, "huey utenchin" is to be read as "hey, attention!" But save yourself the effort of attempting to figure it out; in the second picture (at the bottom) is my typewritten version of it! But read at your own peril - there's lots of potty-talk in it!

Thanks for the smile - it is so much fun watching how our children learn - he's doing really well.

The only lists Sara has been into lately are making a list of friends who will come to her birthday - which also includes 5 teachers. I'm not sure how to break it to her that they will likely not come...

Bum and poop stories are so necessary for our boys. If they aren't allowed to write about it all, they fixate on it and find the need to express that potty-stuff (not literally) when they get older. Your Matthew is creative and interesting and wondering and expressing and wishing. He is, I imagine, a delight to live with. Take credit - good parenting, to allow him freedom of expression and room to explore and the environment to be creative & imaginative. You are a great mom, Ruth!

My name is Ruth. I am fifty years old and have been married to Geoff for twenty-two years. We have three children: a thirteen-year-old boy; an eleven-year-old boy; and a nine-year-old girl. Our second and third children are Ethiopian-born; we brought them home to Canada in mid-2011.

I love to blog about things such as adoption, homsechooling, parenting, and life in general. Being a Christian also factors into what I write about or how I think about things.

Life can be messy and complicated and I have lots of questions about it...but it's my goal to learn to live each day to the fullest. I look forward to learning from you, and hope that you will find something of value here, too.

Welcome, and blessings!

Ruth.

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